Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-05-27

rather and his mother"
Presently he returned, followed by the rag
ged, dirty looking little Hottentot, who took
off his hat and squatted down on the drive,
looking very miserable and ashamed of him.
self, in the full glare of the African sun, to
the effects of which he appeared to be totally
impervious
Now, Jamie, listen to me-" said the old
man Yesterday you got drunk again
WE'LL I'm not going to talk about that now,
except to say that if 1 find or hear of your
belhg drunk once more-you leave this
place"
"Yes, baas," said the Hottentot meelIy az
was drunk, though not very; only had half
Bottle of Cape Smoke"
"By getting drunk you made quarrel with
Baas Muller, SO that blows passed between
Baas Muller and the baas here on your ac-
count, which was more than you are worth
Now when Baas Muller had struck YOU. YOU
said that he had shot your father and your
mother Was that a lie, or what did you
mean by saying it,"
ut was no lie, baas," said the Hottentot
excitedly. 81 have said it once, and / will
say 1t again. Listen, baas, and | will tell you
the story. When was young, SO highland
he held his hand high enough to indicate
tottle O about IA years of age-"we, that is,
my father, my mother, my uncle, a very old
man. older than the bans pointing to Silas
croft, were bijwoners authorized squat
6ers) on place belonging to old Jacob Muller,
Baas Franks father, down in Lydenburg
yonder. 1t was n bush veldt farm, and old
jacob used to come down there with his cattle
from the High veldt in the winter when there
was no grass in the High veldt, and with him
came the Englishwoman, his wife, and the
young Baas Frank-the baas we saw yester-
day.
How long ago was all thisl' asked MIR.
Croft.
Jantje counted on his fingers for some sec
onds and then held up his hand and opened
1t four times in succession. 49," he said,
twenty years last winter. Baas Frank was
young then; he had only little down upon
his chin. One year, when ON Jacob went
AWAY, after the first rains, he left six oxen
that were too poor thin to go with my faith
err, and told him to look after them as though
they were his children. But the oxen were
bewtched. Three of them took the ungsicli
and died, lion got one a snake killed one,
and one ate tulip and died too. So when
ON Jacob came back the next year all the
oxen were gone He was very angry with
my father, and beat him with n yoke strap
till he was all blood, and, though we showed
him the bones of the oxen, he said that we
had stolen them and sold them.
"Now, ON Jacob had beautiful span Of
black oxen that he loved like children. Six
teen of them were there, and they would
come up to the yoke when he called them and
put down their heads of themselves. They
were tame as dogs. These oxen were thin
when they came down, but in two months
they got fat and began to want to trek about
as oxen do. At this time there was Basutu,
one of SequatIs people, resting in our hut,
for he had hurt his foot with thorn. When
ON Jacob found that the Basutu was there
he was very angry, Tor he said that all Basu-
tus were thieves. So my father told the
Basutu that the baas said that he must go
away, and he went that night. Next morn
ing the span of black oxen were gone too.
The kraal gate was down and they had gone
We hunted all day, but we could not find
them. Then ON Jacob got mad with rage,
and the young Baas Frank told him that
one of the Kaffir boys had said to him that
he had heard my father sell them to the Ba-
sutu for sheep which he was to pay to us in
the summer. 1t was lie, but Baas Frank
hated my father because of something about
a woman-a Zulu girl. Next morning, when
Muller and Baas Frank and two Kafiirs
came into the hut and pulled us out the old
man, my uncle, my father my mother and
myself, and tied us up to four mmosa trees,
with buffalo reims Then the Kaflirs went
away, and ON Jacob asked my father where
the cattle We're, and my father told him that
he did not know. Then he took off his hat
and said prayer to the Big Man in the sky,
and when he had done Baas Frank came up
with gun, and stood quite close and shot
my father dead, and he fell forward and
hung quite over the REIN, his head touching
his feet Then lie loaded the gun again and
shot the old man, my uncle, and he slipped
down dead, and his hands stuck up in the air
against the REIN Next he shot my mother,
but the bullet did not kill her, and cut the
REIN, and she ran away, and he ran after
her and killed her. When that was done he
came back to shoot me; but | was young
then and did not know that it is better to be
dead than to live like a dog, and | begged
and prayed for mercy while he was loading
the gun.
"But the baas only laughed, and said he
would teach Hottentots how to steal CATTLE
and old ON Jacob prayed out loud to the Big
Man and said he was very sorry for me, but
it was the dear Lords will And then, lust
as BaaS Frank lifted the gun he dropped it
again, for there, coming softly, softly over
the brow of the hill, i'll and out between the
bushes, were all the sixteen oxen. They had
got out in the night and strayed away into
some kloof for a change of pasture, and
come back when they were full and tired of
being alone. ON Jacob turned quite white
and scratched his head, and then fell upon
his knees and thanked the dear Lord for saw
ing my life; and just then the English
woman, Baas Franks mother, came down
from the wagon to sec what the firing was
at, and when she saw all the people dead and
me weeping tied to the tree, and learned
what it was about, she went quite mad, for
sometimes she had n kind heart when she was
not drunk, and said that a curse would fall
on them, and that they would all die in blood.
And she took knife and cut me loose.
though Baas Frank wanted to kill me, so that
| might tell no tales; and | ran away, travel
ing By night and hiding by day, for | was
very much fri1 atened Till got to Natal, and
there l Stop d, working in Natal till the
land became 'nglish, when Baas Croft hired
To inf IL.